In this post:
Flying Blue status match

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Aegean Airlines
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ITA Airways
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Air Canada
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Lufthansa
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American Airlines
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Oman Air
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British Airways
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Qatar Airways
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Emirates
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Singapore Airlines
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Finnair
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Thai Airways
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Gulf Air
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Turkish Airlines
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Iberia
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United Airlines
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- To apply for the status match, visit flyingblue.statusmatch.com.
- If you are not currently a Flying Blue member, you can join the programme on the Flying Blue website and then return to complete the application.
Here are the tiers that major airlines map to:

For more information about the status match offer, please refer to Flying Blue Status Match FAQ.
IHG third night free
Booking.com data breach
I have previously spoken of the issues Booking.com has had with customers receiving messages supposedly from the hotel or accommodation they have booked. I occasionally use Booking.com as I find that if you have status with them, they can work out cheaper than booking direct with some independent hotels. You can also get some decent rates of Avios through the online Avios shopping portal. So I was disappointed to see that Booking.com has now announced a data breach that will make these scam scenarios more likely for customers involved.
Therefore, I thought it was worth covering the data breach as well as what to look out for even if you have not been involved.
Booking.com say that unauthorised third parties may have been able to access certain booking information associated with past or upcoming reservations. However, if you have been specifically involved, you should get an email from them stating which booking has been accessed. The comoany believe that the accessed information could include booking details and name(s), email address(es) and phone number(s) associated with the booking and anything that you may have shared with the accommodation.
To keep the affected booking(s) secure, Booking has updated the PIN number(s) of the reservation(s).
For everyone, it is important to be wary if you receive messages from within the Booking.com platform as there have been instances of scammers managing to do this. If a hotel or accommodation contacts you and asks for a credit card or personal details, asks for additional money or asks you to click on the link, you should be aware it could be a scam. The best thing to do is find the hotel’s proper contact details and call them directly to check if the message is genuine. No hotels or accommodation should be asking for money or credit card details through Booking.com . They often use the ruse that the payment has failed to ask for another card.

